The first time I saw Daniel Larsson and Tomas Redigh’sInsert Coin I was skeptical that they had really animated it by hand, just by moving a bunch of coins around on the floor. Then I saw the clever trick they were using to lay out the individual frames. Still a tedious task, requiring serious commitment. And lots and lots of coffee.

Update: Thanks to Hermann for pointing out the erroneous headline: “The fact is that the original images are 1-bit. A bit depth of “one” means that there are only two possible colors per pixel — usually black or white. In this case, each “pixel” is “coin” or “no coin” (with the coins lit to be virtually white against a black background).” By “8-bit-style,” I really intended “suggestive of early computer graphics.”

I am descended from 5,000 generations of tool-using primates. Also, I went to college and stuff. I am a long-time contributor to MAKE magazine and makezine.com. My work has also appeared in ReadyMade, c’t – Magazin für Computertechnik, and The Wall Street Journal.

Thats amazing. Period. I especially like the wormhole scene (and pacman). It must have taken forever, even with the (sweet) trick they used. Makes me want to try something similar :)

http://www.facebook.com/msraynsford Martin Raynsford

It’s a great trick for initially laying out the coins, but it you concentrate on one single coin that is slightly off centre and track it through several frames it remains in exactly the same position. This either suggests that they put it back equally off centre every single time or, the more likely answer, is that it’s an animation trick.
10/10 for producing a very cool animation though.

http://www.facebook.com/msraynsford Martin Raynsford

It’s a great trick for initially laying out the coins, but it you concentrate on one single coin that is slightly off centre and track it through several frames it remains in exactly the same position. This either suggests that they put it back equally off centre every single time or, the more likely answer, is that it’s an animation trick.
10/10 for producing a very cool animation though.

http://www.facebook.com/msraynsford Martin Raynsford

It’s a great trick for initially laying out the coins, but it you concentrate on one single coin that is slightly off centre and track it through several frames it remains in exactly the same position. This either suggests that they put it back equally off centre every single time or, the more likely answer, is that it’s an animation trick.
10/10 for producing a very cool animation though.